Category Archives: Vancouver

While I was in Vancouver, I had the chance to attend the culinary final practical exam at Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver, my sister Andrea’s alma mater. The school’s professional culinary program culminates in a 3-day practical exam, during which the students are responsible for designing and executing a fine dining six course meal. Although this meant a great deal of stress and pressure for the students, for the rest of us, it meant an amazing dinner (including wine!).

Most of the guests were friends and family of the students. As someone who had already gone through the culinary program, Andrea was able to sit in as a guest, and – fortunately for me – invited me along. Also present were chefs from Vancouver fine dining establishments such as Hawksworth, España, and West serving as judges.

We were all seated at long tables in an open kitchen, while the students laboured away on the other end. It was a wonderfully relaxed environment, and all throughout the evening we were able to chat with the other guests, as well as Chef Tony Minichiello, culinary instructor and co-owner of the school. Andrea and I were each served dishes from two different menus, but we managed to sneak a few bites from each other’s plates.

The food was superb. My dinner incorporated a lot of ingredients foraged from nature, thus giving it a seasonal and very west coast Canadian feel. While we dined, we were encouraged to jot down notes directly on the menus to serve as feedback for the students. My notes probably weren’t as useful as Andrea’s (I peeked at her sheet and she had all these comments on texture and flavour combinations and whatnot; among my comments were “holy shit!” and “yum!”). Overall, the meal was wonderful, full of unexpected flavours that really reflected the season and location. Really, a top fine dining experience.

Ohisashiburi, ne! Sorry, I suppose I’ve been MIA for a while now. It has been a busy month and a half both professionally and personally, and unfortunately, my blog has suffered as a consequence. Gomen, guys！

Anyway, now that things have calmed down a bit, I have been able to squeeze in some vacation time, which has brought me back home to Vancouver for a few days. Despite living in Vancouver for the first 20-some-odd years of my life, my hometown feels a lot more foreign this time around. I suppose this is the strongest case of reverse culture shock that I’ve felt in some time.

While there are a lot of new buildings and restaurants and bars — I really don’t know what’s cool in this city anymore! — I was relieved to find that one of my favourite local events was still going strong.

Dr. Sketchy’sis a global figure drawing workshop that is “part art class, part cabaret.” I used to attend the Vancouver sessions at The Wallflower quite regularly back in 2010.

As luck would have it, my trip to Vancouver this time happened to coincide with one of this month’s “anti-art” workshops, held at Hot Art Wet City, a new-ish (well, new to me) gallery on Main Street. After almost 4 years since the last time I attended, I really couldn’t resist having a go at stretching my sketching muscles again. I went with a couple film school buddies who are both animators. All three of us are used to translating 2D concepts (in the form of concept art or storyboards, for example) into 3D art, and so it was fun — and quite challenging, to be honest — to have a chance to do the opposite for a change, that is, capture a live three-dimensional figure onto a flat sketch.

The crowd was smaller than I expected, which only made the session feel more intimate. Apart from that, the atmosphere was just as good as I remembered it — a regular figure drawing session transformed into a loose, loud burlesque show which embodied exactly what I love about the local art scene — open-minded, welcoming, and fun.

OK, time for a personal confession: I really miss my family. While there are a handful of things about Vancouver that I miss, really, the only difficult thing about not living in Vancouver anymore is being away from my parents and sister.

The most fucking awesome people in the world.(Ma & Pa, if you’re reading this, please pardon the potty mouth.)

So it was really great to have the chance to spend a few days at home last week, especially for Father’s Day. Despite the short stay, we definitely made the most of it. Father’s Day this year happened to coincide with Vancouver’s annual Car Free Day, a festival that takes place throughout the city and is exactly as it sounds — the city closes several blocks in various neighbourhoods and opens the car-free streets up for a block party.

As I mentioned before, I spent this past weekend in Vancouver, and it turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant trip. I mean, I always have a great time hanging out with family and friends, but I normally have some shitty encounter with customer service or a snobby Vancouverite which sours my visit whenever I’m in town and reminds me why I was so glad to get out of that city.

But this time, everyone was so nice and chatty and friendly, and this – coupled with the aforementioned family time – allowed me to really appreciate how much I really do like Vancouver, despite our rocky relationship.

I decided to spend the weekend in Vancouver. Partly a trip to deal with Canadian bureaucracy, the other part an excuse to visit family, the trip turned out to be a lot better than I was expecting. Heading out Friday evening, I really didn’t feel like going, mostly because this was to be a solo trip and that meant that Edu and I would be apart for two whole days. It’s crazy to think that we survived a year apart from each other at one point, considering the dread that the prospect of a mere two days apart instilled in me.

Nonetheless, I was still looking forward to spending some quality time with my family, and so off to Vancouver I went. This visit was particularly poignant, since, in light of recent news, it might have actually been one of the last opportunities I’d have to fly back home and see my family for the weekend.